Baykeeper Catchment Education

Since 2009 the Baykeeper shoreline shell surveys have been a fun way to engage schools and families in citizen science – where everyday people systematically record environmental features to enable qualified scientists to answer BIG questions. Over the past 18 months, thanks to funding from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation for the Baykeeper Catchment Education project 3 new data collection activities have been developed.

The activities are designed to track major issues of our time and to highlight the fact that what goes on in the ‘burbs impacts on the Bay.

These include plastic pollution audits on streets and beaches (to identify the most commonly littered plastic items to inform strategies to stop them entering waterways); beach profiling and live mollusc surveys (recording beach surface levels in a transect from the top of the beach to the inter-tidal zone; and live populations of bivalve and gastropod molluscs in sandy seabed habitats that may change due to impacts of climate change).

The ultimate aim is to establish 4 regional chapters where local beach goers and groups will use these methods to track changes in their area. A great way to connect with your local environment and community. Details of coming events are found at http://www.ecocentre.com/calendar